"Dreams"

Last year while I was training for Iron-Man Wisconsin I had one or two dreams about the race. The one I still remember is me standing at the finish line breaking the tape without much fanfare. When you get focused on events I figure things like that happen. So I had my 1st trail running dream a couple of days ago.

I dreamed I was running on the trails and my wife yelled out, "watch out for the horse crap". I jumped as far as I could to avoid it, but somehow I still landed on top of it. Okay not a pleasant dream, but one that somehow provided meaning for the weekend.

As I headed to one of my usual trail running spots to start one of my long runs, I kept thinking about the dream. Arrived at the trail at twilight, I was the only one there (some-days I really do wonder how truly crazy I'am). Even-though the day was supposed to be 40 and it had rained the night before I thought the trails wouldn't be to bad. As I started out all I saw was sheets of ice on the trail and you guessed it, horse crap. But I tried to make the best of it. I tried running around the ice on the side of the trail, always looking down for you know what. But after taking 30 minutes to run over 2 miles, I had enough, plus somehow my dream kept haunting me. I think slipping on the ice and falling in that stuff would not be a good thing. If I did, I would have told myself, "I told you so". Yes, I know it is the trails, but I'm still a city boy raised on concrete trying to run out there. And horse crap was something you would find at the local events that had pony rides.

So I just ran on the sides of the road aimlessly until I got to 21 miles. Now that was quit boring, but at least alot of other runners was out there with the same idea. There was actually one lady who was bent over on the side of the road, pretty much on the verge of "tossing her cookies" every couple of seconds. So I offered a helping hand, not sure why that stuff does not bother me and horse crap does. She said she was okay and I went on my way. She did make it back thou, looking alot better than before.

So this week is a recovery week for me, even-though I was not able to get all the running mileage this weekend I wanted to, only 21 & 18 mile long runs for the weekend. (Dang, Daylight savings time, I hate it I tell you). I somehow managed to post 19+ hours of training, DANG, that is alot, how did that happen. I think I needed this week to rest a bit even-though I have a very competitive and sold-out 1/2 marathon race on Sunday.

Will see if this crap-phobic dude has some speed.

For now, I think I will just go back to sleep and hope for a more pleasant dream.